Seven Strategic Leadership Cases,
Presented at 2016 “Making Your Case” Competition:
Viettire’s Expansion Strategy In Myanmar
Industry: Distribution of tires. Countries: Vietnam, Myanmar
Dilemma: The challenge of expansion. The dilemma of which entry mode strategy to proceed
How to Rescue “Wonderful Company” from Market Reduction
Industry: Consulting in higher education. Country: China
Dilemma: The need to re-position the business strategy in order to strengthen competitive advantage
The Growing Path of Short Path Distillery
Industry: Distillery Country: United States
Dilemma: Growth strategy, need to reformulate the business identity due to a growing portfolio
Union Kitchen Handmade
Industry: Craft soap and candles Country: United States
Dilemma: Strategic marketing
The Survival of Hongta Bookstore
Industry: Book retail Country: China
Dilemma: Portfolio management
Custom Fixturing: Designing a Strategic Path
Industry: Production Country: United States
Dilemma: Corporate strategy of related diversification vs. unrelated diversification
The Future Expansion Dilemma of Cao Viet Deimex
Industry: Software Country: Vietnam
Dilemma: Business positioning strategy
Yen Le Loc Nguyen Ngoc Nguyen
MS in Leadership, Vietnam
2016 Winner |
Viettire’s Expansion Strategy In Myanmar Country presented in the case: Vietnam, Myanmar
|
Wei Yang
MS in Leadership |
How to Rescue “Wonderful Company” from Market Reduction Country presented in the case: China Wonderful Company provides Chinese people with assistance applying and enrolling in higher education institutions abroad. However, there may occasionally be a mistake in a choice of the college for a student. The case describes the situation when such a mismatch led to the media attention because of the student’s highly vocal mother. As a result, several banks refused to assist the transaction for the Wonderful Company. This led to the loss of the clients related to these banks and a many potential customers withdrew their applications to sign a contract with Wonderful Company. The company found itself at the edge of survival. The case investigates the options to help Wonderful Company restore its business operations. |
Elias Tsismenakis Jie Weng
MBA
|
The Growing Path of Short Path Distillery Short Path Distillery (SPD) is a craft distillery start-up. It has been in business since July of 2015 and is trying hard to establish its identity and build brand equity in order to get traction in its revenue and expedite growth. Located in Everett MA, SPD had been providing two craft spirit products to consumers — gin and rum, with an addition of two new releases of No. 14 Gin and SPD Triple Sec in its Flagship series. While profitability for SPD is good, it must be mindful of its burn-rate of investment capital and look to grow its top-line in order to create not only a sustainable, but also successful business. This consulting case investigates strategies for further growth of the company, including SPD’s distribution channels and marketing options. |
Stefania Gentile Eric Salamon
MBA
2016 Winner
|
Union Kitchen Handmade Country presented in the case: United States Faced with a highly competitive market, John and Ellen, founders of Union Kitchen, faced the dilemma of how to strategically grow their market share. Neither of them had the ambition to turn the family business into a large company but they both wanted to continue to sustainably grow to ensure the business remained profitable enough to maintain their current lifestyles. John and Ellen defined their options as follows: (a) Expand the party favors business through target marketing; (b) Increase repeat customers sales through a customer tracking system; and (c) Focus marketing and production efforts on candles rather than soaps. Being a small company, this decision will have a large impact on the business but as competition continues to increase, ignoring the dilemma and not taking action is not an option. Based on the strategic analysis detailed in this report, the team of authors provides recommendations on how Union Kitchen can focus on implementing a customer tracking system to increase repeat customer sales and develop the cross selling of products. |
Zhanhe Ma
MS in Leadership
2016 Finalist
|
The Survival of Hongta Bookstore Country presented in the case: China This consulting case intends to help Jim, a manager of Hongta Bookstore, with the store’s organizational transformation. If Jim does not change the situation of Hongta Bookstore within three months and bring it back to sustainable sales and profit, the bookstore would be closed. There are market opportunities available for the store, but Jim’s actions are limited with guanxi relationships between the store owner and major stakeholders. The case investigates several options for Jim’s actions and analyzes each of them through the frames of organizational transformation. The case ends with the proposed solution and action plan for Jim to follow. |
Ryan Lee Karim Murr Tahni Pierzga
Master in International Management
2016 Finalist
|
Custom Fixturing: Designing a Strategic Path Country presented in the case: United States Custom Fixturing is a family-owned business located in Malden, MA and is currently run by Katherine, the founder’s daughter. The company is a player in the retail fixture industry, which produces pieces like sign holders, shoe racks, and display tables for brick-and-mortar stores. This industry has experienced a steady-annualized growth, and Custom Fixturing’s assembly line has been running at full capacity, offering two categories of products: (a) artistic and custom one-off projects, and (b) standardized-mass-produced repetitive products. The majority of the company’s profit came from the (b) mass-manufactured, simple store fixtures, while the (a) one-off projects provide the negative return on investment. At the same time, one-off project are a core competency, a major competitive differentiation, and a great “window” to promote the company. “Why do we keep accepting these complex, one-off projects?” wondered Katherine. This consulting case assists Katherine in answering the following questions: Should she only accept mass manufacturing orders, which would change the competitor set? Should she continue to accept one-off orders? If she continued to accept one-off projects, how should she manage them and where would the “backing out” point be? |
Phi Nguyen Sang Tran
MS in Leadership, Vietnam |
The Future Expansion Dilemma of Cao Viet Deimex Country presented in the case: Vietnam The case is built around the dilemma of the newly appointed CEO of Cao Viet, Ms. Kim on how assure company extension and change the entire business model as the previous business model was not success. The team of case authors investigates the external and internal environment and analyzes several options for Cao Viet extension. The team recommended introducing a new line of service, a sub-brand named under the trademark of Cao Viet with competitive price, intelligent solutions, and offering the most savings. The team justifies this recommendation with the value that this decision brings to potential customers, including hotels and karaoke entertainments nearby. The team also introduces a plan for how Ms. Kim can involve company employees and major stakeholders as well as extend a line of involved stakeholders to make sure of the buy-in for the new business model. |